Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Why is Joe Biden still holding public office? Why is he still Vice President of the United States?

2006 - "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." - said Joe in an overheard remark to an Indian-American man.

2007 - "I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." - said Joe while campaigning against Barack Obama.

2008 - "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya." - said Joe calling attention to a wheelchair-bound state senator in the audience at a campaign stop who was then promptly defeated in the general election that fall.

2009 - "I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places right now. It's not that it's going to Mexico, it's that you are in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes everywhere through the aircraft." - said Joe advising people not to travel anywhere near Mexico.

2012 - "I promise you, the president has a big stick. I promise you.” - said Joe just this past April.

2012 - "He is going to put y'all back in chains." said Joe to a largely African American audience in Virginia.

On the last one, Joe claims the "y'all" meant the middle class. But as a self-reported middle class hero, wouldn't he have instead used the words "us all" if that is what he meant? At some point we've passed through "he should be dropped from the ticket" territory and entered "he should resign immediately" country.

All of these can be explained away as isolated remarks. Perhaps Joe Biden did not mean to suggest that no one in his family should risk breathing the same air that might have been previously breathed by a Mexican. Taken as a whole, they suggest a thought process in the old Archie Bunker mentality.